Writer and military historian Neil B. Dukas
(formerly of Honolulu, but now living in Marin
County, Calif.) begins with an interesting
question: How did a highly developed warrior
society become the land of aloha?

To explain the transition, he begins with a
thorough examination of the world of na koa —
the fighting men — before contact, and
particularly during what is called the Classical
Era (the mid-17th to mid-18th centuries). He
then moves on to examine the place of the
military during the Hawaiian monarchy period.

A researcher faithful to provable fact, Dukas
is careful to differentiate between what is
known and what is less well-understood about
early military history. Most enlightening is his
clear delineation of Hawaiians' belief in mana
(spiritual power bestowed by the gods) and kapu
(prohibitions that worked to control and channel
that power), and the role these played in
warrior customs and motivation. To be a
successful warrior was to garner and exhibit
mana. To scrupulously obey the complex code of
kapu was similarly to display mana.

Ali'i recruited professional warriors, such
as the elite 'olohe lua, sort of the kung fu
fighters of Hawaiian times, specially trained in
hand-to-hand combat. But there was also a highly
mobile militia system that could be called on.

Throughout, Dukas refutes widespread
misunderstandings (for example, an exaggerated
view, probably promulgated by later non-Hawaiian
writers, of the importance of Western weaponry
in Kamehameha I's campaign to unite the
Islands). (One amusing aside: Dukas notes that
the "arm band" tattoos so popular today in
various Hawaiian motifs were not worn in Hawai'i
until after Western contact; tattoos ranged over
the shoulder, along the leg or arm or across the
chest.)

By contrast, the story of monarchy-era armies
is a sadder one, much concerned with pageantry
and froufrou, colors and uniforms, a far, far
cry from the days when a warrior was "an eel
with pointed teeth," according to a traditional
aphorism.